3 AM
by L'Archel-Hotishi
Summary: Loki can't sleep. Heimdall can't sleep. Insomnia leads to bonding that, a few years ago, neither god would have predicted would ever come to fruition, especially at three o'clock in the morning. LokiHeimu. Fluff. Small spoilers for first, second, and third season.


Title: 3 A.M.

Pairing: Heimdall x Loki

Disclaimer: Every aspect of the Matantei Loki franchise belongs to Sakura Kinoshita. All three series, characters, and settings are not mine.

Rating: T (Language)

Author's Note: Surprise! I'm back.

Well, that's not really a surprise. I will never abandon my OTP.

Enjoy! **(This takes place during the third season, Gods of the New World. If you haven't read it, you'll still understand 98% of the story, so enjoy anyway!)**

**-START-**

Sleep evaded him. No matter how much he tossed and turned in bed, it was impossible for the trickster god to go to sleep. What was even more annoying was the fact that Loki had no idea why he was suddenly plagued with insomnia.

The day hadn't been stressful. In fact, if Loki had to pick an adjective to describe the last 24 hours, he would have picked the word _mundane. Pitifully normal_, if he could pick two words and was allowed the pleasure of being harsh.

Yamino had made a wonderful breakfast, Mayura had stopped by after school, and Narugami had pestered them during dinner. Nothing out of the normal had occurred all day.

The normality continued after sundown. Just like normal, he'd showered after dinner and had gotten into bed. Yamino had been kind enough to shut all the drapes in his room except for the ones decorating the window by his bed. Ecchan had floated into the room and was snoozing on the pillow beside Loki's head, his soft snoring as rhythmic and adorable as usual. Fenrir had fallen asleep on a couch in the study, and was missing from his normal spot at the foot of Loki's bed. So that was one oddity, but it barely counted.

Everything was normal. So why couldn't he just close his eyes and drift away like normal?

The small god considered every option. Perhaps his tea was more caffeinated than usual, or perhaps he was on the brink of an epiphany with one of the cases he'd been juggling. Neither seemed too possible. While Loki was fully aware that he could have bouts of carelessness, he had enough faith in his deduction abilities to conclude that he would have known if the thing keeping him awake was something so trivial. No, it had to be something else.

Suddenly, a thought crossed his mind that made him still slighting and made his body stop moving beneath the sheets.

A lack of sleep could be caused by being watched.

It was a scientific fact Loki had heard while Mayura had been watching one of her paranormal television shows at the agency. If someone was having trouble sleeping or was woken up in the middle of the night by an unknown cause, there was a high chance that someone or something was watching from nearby. It had been skewed to apply more to ghosts and the paranormal, but the gist of the fact was pretty accurate.

Loki's emerald eyes flitted around the room. His heightened senses hadn't picked up on any unusual presences in the agency, but that didn't mean there wasn't something outside.

The boy sat up and looked outside.

At first, he saw nothing. Then, his eyes began glow as he saw a familiar figure sitting in a tree on the property. Even in the dark, the identity was no mystery.

"Come on out," Loki saw calmly, lips curved into a smirk. "I know you're not a coward. Why so timid tonight?"

Not a second later, a figure materialized next to the small god's bed. Ecchan was woken up by the disturbance and squeaked in surprise. The marshmallow-like familiar soared from its spot on the pillow to the bedroom door, afraid to stay in the same room as the watchman, especially if he had a hawk with him.

"Can't sleep?" Heimdall asked in a voice Loki knew was aimed at mocking him. The god let it slide easily.

"No," Loki said, reclining on his elbows. "I can't. Strange, huh? Usually everyone else, including you, do a perfectly fine job at wearing me out. Usually sleeping is easy for me."

Heimdall chuckled.

"So, why are you here?" Loki asked. Things had calmed down after Odin's death and the avoidance of Ragnarok. Things were more complicated now that Hoenir was creating an army specifically for gods of the supposed New World, but it had brought Heimdall and Loki closer together. Now that Modi, Magni, Vali, and Vidarr were intimidating foes, Loki and Heimdall could finally act cordial with one another without worrying about fate or prophecies. It was oddly relaxing, and both were still getting used to the idea that it was okay for them to not utterly despise each other anymore. Still, that didn't mean they disliked it. Not at all.

"I came over because I was looking for something to do," Heimdall said, sighing as if he found his own excuse to be pathetic. "You see, I couldn't sleep either."

"Why didn't you just wake Freyr up? I'm sure there are 24-hour stores open all around town. You guys could have gone on a late night shopping spree."

"Very funny," Heimdall spat. "You try living with someone like him. I'd rather be bored to death than go to another produce sale. However, if I could sleep and avoid both options for a few hours, I'd like that the most."

"So we're sharing a dilemma," Loki said with an amused grin. "How funny. Care to sit?"

Heimdall actually liked the idea very much and took a seat next to Loki. From their spot on the well decorated bed both could look up and out the bedside window to see the heavy moon sitting peacefully in the sky.

"So, what do you suggest?" Heimdall asked. "You're a detective, right? Help me find a way to sleep."

"That's hardly a fitting job for a detective of my magnitude, or any detective for that matter," the trickster replied with a dry exhale. "But alright, fine. So, what do you want? Hot milk? A story?"

Heimdall made a face. "Something more creative would be appreciated."

"Detectives aren't creative in the traditional sense."

"So people pay you to be an overly-critical nuisance. I knew there had to be a reason why you were doing so well on Midgard."

Loki's eye twitched, but again, he let the remark slide. For some reason, his sleepiness was making him unusually generous.

"How about we try something like this?" Loki began, casting his gaze upward to look upon the pearly sphere in the sky. "Let's _not try_ to go to sleep."

Heimdall blinked. "What?"

"Hear me out," the god said as he swung his legs forward and leaped off the bed. Heimdall watched as he walked to the bedroom door and peeked out in the hallway to see if Ecchan had fled to Yamino's room or if the poor thing was shivering in the hallway. When Loki's conscious was at rest, he continued his statement.

"It's all about reverse psychology. For a lot of people, it's easy to take naps during the day than go to sleep at night. That's because sleeping during the day feels like a privilege while sleeping at night feels like an obligation. Rather than trying to force ourselves to go to sleep because we feel like we have to, we should think of all the things that we accomplished and how tired the day has made us. That way, it'll take the pressure off."

"Sounds like high school psychology bullshit," Heimdall said, rolling his eyes.

Loki made an offended sound. "Oh, pardon me. Please, I should have allowed you to state your better idea first. Please, go ahead!"

Loki crossed his arms and stared at the watchman firmly. When Heimdall couldn't manage a reply, he lifted a brow. The watchman continued to hold a steady gaze or a minute before averting his eyes in the most proud way he could. "I don't have any ideas."

"You don't say," Loki said with a laugh, completely immune to the venomous stare that Heimdall was giving him. "There was no way I could deduce that when you came all the way here asking me for my help. Oh, but not before you spent some time spying on me from a tree, right?"

"Okay, I get it."

"To think that the god who used hawks and cheap parlor tricks to try and kill me for the past few years wouldn't be great at concocting new ideas. How utterly shocking."

"_I get it!"_ Heimdall shouted, bristling when he heard his loud scream echo around the room.

The small god walked around the bed and returned to his position under the soft, clean sheets. Loki rolled over and sighed. "Hurry up."

Heimdall blinked and rocked his head to the side. "Hurry and do what?"

"Get into bed," Loki said bluntly.

Heimdall's snort was incredibly undignified. "Um. No."

"You said you couldn't sleep, right?" the trickster asked. His only reply was a reluctant nod. "Well, then get in. After all, aren't we friends now?"

"That has nothing to do with it," Heimdall said, rubbing his temples. Loki always made every situation much more difficult than it needed to be. At the moment, difficult and awkward were two perfect words to describe the situation. "I'll just go home and use my own goddamn bed."

Loki groaned impatiently and cast his emerald eyes over to the wall clock nearby. "It's three o'clock in the morning. Seriously, just stay here and save yourself the trouble. You already made the trip."

Heimdall simply stood in silence, head swaying lightly from side to side, hand closed over his eyes.

"Okay, fine," Heimdall said. "Maybe your dumb technique will work after all. Still, your logic concerns me."

Loki smirked as the taller boy reclined next to him on top of the sheets. "It's never failed me before."

"Hmph. Of course not."

Heimdall rolled over onto his side, away from the surprisingly bright light of the moon. Loki rolled in the opposite direction, facing it. The two remained back to back, each trying to imagine all the daily activities that had exhausted them. Loki's day had been fairly boring, so the task was leaps and bounds more difficult than it seemed. As he tried to focus on everything that could be viewed as exhausting, the straining began to give Loki a headache, forcing him to stop. He continued to repeat the pattern of concentrating then relaxing for at least thirty minutes. "Ugh, this isn't working."

Silence answered his statement.

"Heimdall?"

Behind him came soft snoring. Loki's eyes shot open and he got up and looked over to see Heimdall curled up comfortably, face calm and serene.

"You have to be kidding me!" Loki whispered stridently, the urge to pound the god with his pillow growing. That sure had been easy for him. "If I didn't know better, I would have thought you were lying to me, you bastard!"

The realization then hit him as hard and quick as a bullet to the heart. Perhaps he had made up the entire story about sleeping just to spend time with him. Then again, perhaps that was wrong. It was entirely possible that Heimdall had stopped by for the exact reason he'd said. He couldn't rule that out.

Loki smiled as he looked at how relaxed Heimdall looked. Maybe the _high school bullshit_ had worked after all. If that was really the case, Loki could hardly wait to rub that in his face when he woke up.

It really didn't matter what the reason was. Regardless of how or why Heimdall had fallen asleep, Loki was still caught off guard by how natural he looked. Usually, Heimdall's face was a contorted image of anger, while his body was stiff with stress and self-hatred. The watchman was all bluster and seriousness. Seeing him so serene was a real treat.

Now that Loki was allowed to actually care about his friend's well-being on a general level, it made him really happy to see him so calm. After everything the watchman had been through, he deserved it.

Yawning, Loki settled back down under the covered and inched closer to Heimdall's back. Now that Ecchan was gone, the warmth he was so used to feeling next to him was absent.

Moving delicately, he continued to scoot until he could rest his check against Heimdall's back. Even beneath the layer of sweatshirt that covered his chest, the heat was present. Loki couldn't stop his eyelids from gradually becoming heavy.

"Thanks," Loki whispered, laughing as he managed to lean over and place a small kiss on Heimdall's warm cheek. Slowly, he felt the comfort of the massive bed consume him, and the trickster fell asleep beside the watchman, both breathing in sync with one another.

When morning came and Yamino peered into the room, the young man decided to leave them be rather than waking them from their slumber. It would be much more entertaining for them to awaken naturally.

Still, all things considered, he wouldn't wake his master and friend even if there had been a more pressing matter that had warranted it. The two deserved to finally sleep calmly.

They needed the rest after everything that had kept them awake for so many long years.

**-END-**

I didn't know how to end this one. Is it obvious?

Anyway, look for more LokiHeimu stories soon!


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